Silent Posted June 19, 2011 at 04:08 PM Report Posted June 19, 2011 at 04:08 PM I'm looking for some graded reading. I come across classifications based on number of words/characters and A/B codes with a number (1-5) in front that not always logical matches with the word count. Does anybody know how A/B codes, wordcount and HSK levels compare? Is there somewhere an overview of graded readers sorted to level? Quote
Silent Posted June 20, 2011 at 11:44 PM Author Report Posted June 20, 2011 at 11:44 PM No-one with intelligent words about the subject? Quote
imron Posted June 21, 2011 at 12:20 AM Report Posted June 21, 2011 at 12:20 AM Have you seen the Chinese Breeze series? That's the one that seems to pop up most frequently when people talk about graded readings here. I have no idea how it relates to A/B codes and other things though. I think they were created off word frequency lists. Quote
Silent Posted June 21, 2011 at 05:50 AM Author Report Posted June 21, 2011 at 05:50 AM Yes, I've seen the Chinese Breeze series. Actually a few weeks back I ordered some of them. Me being a cheapo I took the cheapest shipping rate not thinking about the 6 to 12 week wait involved:( Now I fear they will be at the easy end of the spectrum when they arrive as I made a fair bit of progress lately. So now I'm looking for something a little more 'advanced'. For now I see FLTRP Graded Readers with different ratings e.g. 2A and 2B, but identical wordcounts. I've read somewhere that Graded Chinese Reader 3 (1000 words) is perceived harder than Graded Chinese Reader 1 (2000 words). Then I've found the travel in China series (1000 words), but at first glance the sample page I saw did not look that easy. So I'm looking for a bit of light on the levels of difficulty, an objective comparison. Also other alternatives and (dis)advantages may be handy to know. Quote
HedgePig Posted June 21, 2011 at 11:53 AM Report Posted June 21, 2011 at 11:53 AM Silent, have you looked at www.chinesestoriesplatform.com/index.php? I really like this site for many reasons - the readings are bit longer than what is usually aimed at this level (they are usually around 800 to 1200 characters, split into 2 or 3 posts) - there are also a lot of articles there - it has a detailed vocabulary list which is divided into (old style) HSK levels - there is pinyin and audio available (although the audio is not great quality and I seldom use it myself) - it's free! The site has articles aimed at the "elementary" and "intermediate" level. Even the elementary level is well above Chinese Breeze Level 2 but it may be worth looking at. It assumes you know HSK (old style) Level 1 vocab and introduces new vocab, mainly from HSK level 2 but also from level 3, 4 as well as a few words not in the HSK. If you only know HSK 1, this won't be easy reading. But if you know most of HSK 1 and 2, I think you'll find the elementary level not too difficult. Quote
Silent Posted June 22, 2011 at 05:05 AM Author Report Posted June 22, 2011 at 05:05 AM I've seen the site before, but had forgotten about it. So thanks for reminding me. It's indeed very hard for me. I studied nearly all of the Old HSK basic characters. I'm happy if I know half of them well enough to be of real use in a reading excercise. The rest I 'know' only with a right context. By the time the Chinese Breeze books arrive I should be able to read the 300 word books comfortable and the 500 word ones shouldn't be too hard either by that time. By that time this site may be a good alternative. Quote
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